Finally picked up a Nexus 6P

Z

Zorachus

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Dec 17, 2006
Messages
11,308
As you know me, I am sort of a phone whore, but not like some of you, who get like 5 or 6 new phones each year. I know I am late the party, but finally picked up a 6P, and my God this device IMO is still the best Android smartphone available. Stock Android N is a work of art, just so beautiful with the animations and and cool quick reply stuff built in.

Anyways my most recent phones the past 12 months;

- Note 5 I had from August to May ( Great phone, just grew tired of TW )
- LG G5 had for couple days ( Meh, was ok )
- HTC 10 had for three weeks ( Sweet phone, really great, but I want stock Android on it )
- Nexus 6P now, and this is a keeper ( Almost Android perfection )

Quick thoughts on the 6P, at first it was a bit large for me, coming form the HTC 10, which fit so perfect in the hand and felt so good, but I didn't like Sense, even though I tried to Google'fy it to be like stock Android, it still wasn't. But I LOVE this 6P, holy cow is it smooth as hot butter, zero lag, I mean zero lag anywhere on this phone.

My G5 and HTC 10 has a better processor and more RAM, but those phones had very minor micro stutter just every once in a while, and didn't feel 100% totally smooth, but more like 75% smooth, whereas the Nexus 6P feels smooth 100% all the time. I like the AMOLED display once tweaked with a kernel.

Battery life on the 6P Android N Beta 4 Preview is shockingly good. Yesterday I unplugged phone at 6:00am, and at 2:30pm still had 73% battery left, and at the time I had 1h 55m Screen On time.

This phone feels like a mini desktop computer shrunk down to a handheld Star Trek tricorder type device.

For sure keeping this phone while, at least until I see what the 7P Nexus is like come September.
 
When you had your HTC 10 did you notice any lag opening apps? Mine seems to do this from time-to-time.

What did you think of the camera going from the 10 to the 6P?
 
I could not be happier with these accessories for my 6P. I like a minimalist thin setup;


- intelliGLASS HD Max Coverage screen protector
Amazon.com: Nexus 6P intelliGLASS HD Max Coverage (0.2mm)- The Smarter Nexus Glass Screen Protector by intelliARMOR To Guard Against Scratches and Drops. HD Clear With Max Touchscreen Accuracy.: Cell Phones & Accessories

- Nillkin Nature TPU Case [Transparent Thin Soft]
Amazon.com: Nexus 6P Case, Nillkin Nature Series TPU Case Back Cover [Transparent Thin Soft] for Huawei Nexus 6P - Grey: Cell Phones & Accessories


The screen protector went on so perfect and smooth, just clean the phone really well beforehand with the wet towel included, and wipe it down, and then just place the protector on the top, and slowly lay it down, squeezing from the top pushing towards the middle and bottom, and it was done, no bubbles, and it looks like it was designed from Huawei as a perfect fit, nearly invisible.

The case is super razor thin, fitting like a glove, with some nice extra grip. Yeah it won't help form a big drop, but it adds a nice layer of all around minimal protection, and much needed better grip.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
I got the Supcase for my 6P and the iCarez glass screen protector. This is an excellent combo for me as well. The cool thing about iCarez is that they have a lifetime warranty and will replace your protector should you break it somehow. I have one on my wife's Note5 and she dropped it on a deck where a nail head was sticking out and of course with her "final destination" style luck, the display landed right on that nail head and shattered the display.. or so she though until I peeled back the protector and showed her the pristine Gorrilla Glass that was beneath it, hah. I sent this pic to iCarez and I received a new one in 2 days in the mail.

IMG_20160612_070419.jpg

I remember there was a dude here claiming these glass screen protectors are useless and that they provide no protection to the display at all, lol. Can't have better proof than that, I think. I know for sure if the bare gorilla glass had hit that nail head, it would have shattered.

I had the same case on my M8 and it survived falling off of a roller coaster into some light gravel/dirt and several other drops onto concrete. I'm convinced there's no better protection for how thin it is. The buttons somehow feel better and more tactile through this case than the bare buttons as well.

Anyways, back to 6P talk. I just got around to rooting my 6P finally and threw the PureNexus ROM (which I saw your posts in the XDA thread as well, Zorachus ;)) on it the night before last, as it seems to be the most lauded ROM for this phone that I've seen. I also installed the Franco Kernel Updater app since I had almost forgot I purchased it back when I had the Gnex, haha.. gosh that seems like a while ago, glad this app is still supported though, it seems awesome. It allowed me to flash the latest Franco kernel and enable High Brightness Mode, which definitely gives the display the much needed boost for outdoor visibility. That was a moderate downgrade from my M8 until now. Now all I would like to find is a way to downscale games to 1080p or something for better performance. Battery life definitely seems to be noticeably better over stock so far as well, not that it was bad before, but it seemed I would only get maybe 4 hours SoT stock. I haven't completely discharged yet with this ROM/kernel, but right now I'm at 2h2m SoT and that's with 35m playing Clash of Clans (short of navigating while hotspotting my phone out to my kids, this game is the fastest way to discharge my battery, lol), and 20 mins watching Youtube, not bad, I think.
 
Last edited:
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
Y'all rained on my parade!!! :mad::mad::mad:

lol j/k, congrats guys! I told you the N6P was a great phone. So far, I've had 2 random reboots, but I'm sure on mine it's because I was using Lux to control my brightness.

I did find something that doesn't work well: adaptive brightness. It's very finicky and is over aggressive to the point of being useless.
 
Zorachus, I have a 5X and have tried the N DP3 and PureNexus roms. I'm currently running PA and it's the best out of any roms and kernel combo I've tried. Smoothness is amazing. I strongly suggest you try it.

I like the 6P, but couldn't get on board due to the size.
 
Two things pushed me away from the 6P. Fingerprint scanner on back and the phone is just too damn big.
 
Yeah, after using my wife's Note5 and my 6P, I really don't care where the scanner is, both configs have their trade-offs. Same story with on-screen and capacitive buttons, I really don't care either way and don't see how it's a deal breaker for anyone. And even with my smaller than average hands, I can still use the 6P with one hand for the most part and appreciate the larger screen while in landscape more. I have no issues with it fitting in any of my pockets either; I've never understood that argument for any phone really, even most phablets.
 
T4rd said:
And even with my smaller than average hands, I can still use the 6P with one hand for the most part and appreciate the larger screen while in landscape more. I have no issues with it fitting in any of my pockets either; I've never understood that argument for any phone really, even most phablets.
Click to expand...

Truth. I myself was somewhat averse to it, but it turned out to be a non-issue, particularly after I saw a Korean girl using a Galaxy Note 3 and it looked normal.
 
Man, I wish Samsung had wised the fuck up and put the fingerprint sensor on the back for the S7 Edge. Granted, I'm somewhat biased toward "everything on the back" after the LG G2 and G3, but honestly, it /is/ the logical place for controls. I never accidentally hit anything on my previous LG phones, but with the S7E it's a flashback to the Galaxy S3 (last Samsung I had) on the regular. Can't adjust volume as easily, sometimes hit the power/screen lock accidentally, have to do an awkward grip if I'm one-handing to get the fingerprint reader to work... I know the G3 didn't have a reader, but if it had, and it were housed in the power button? Perfect. LG used to follow Samsung, now the roles really need to be reversed. That said, the G5? A disaster. The worst thing you can do to a flagship phone is decrease the size of the battery. Waterproofing? I could take it or leave it, especially given Samsung's completely bullshit stance of "we /say/ it's waterproof but if you ever bring us a unit that actually has water damage we will not cover it under warranty". Fuckers, you have Lil' Wayne pouring champagne on a S7 Edge 24/7. You make a promise, even advertise it extensively, then turn around and say "if something happens it's your fault"? On one hand I understand, seeing as the seal around the SIM tray is key to keeping the device water-tight... but maybe instead of blaming the consumer that makes an honest mistake (or has a faulty unit) you own up and eat it, or get your engineering team to quit being lazy and figure something out. We have means other than o-rings to electrically insulate shit these days.

For the record, I've had an S7 Edge for several months and it's working fine. It's even been (barely) under water a couple times. That said, I'm furious that my phone has a widely advertised feature that has zero support from the manufacturer.

jyi786 said:
Truth. I myself was somewhat averse to it, but it turned out to be a non-issue, particularly after I saw a Korean girl using a Galaxy Note 3 and it looked normal.
Click to expand...

My girlfriend's hands are not large. She just got a 6P on my recommendation, maybe a month ago. She loves it. "I can type so easily! Everything is so clear! It's so fast!" To everyone that keeps complaining about the size of this phone.... go buy an iPhone SE and leave me the fuck alone.
 
Snapdragon 810 is why I am not buying. Hell, even Google rejected the Daydream certification based on SoC heat management.
 
CHANG3D said:
Snapdragon 810 is why I am not buying. Hell, even Google rejected the Daydream certification based on SoC heat management.
Click to expand...

Believe me, I wasn't going to either, but as I've written in my own thread, I was pleasantly surprised. It's not much of a problem on this phone.
 
Yeah the N6P implementation of the SD810 was pleasantly problemless.

It was only gaming that you'd notice its shortcomings.
 
Pics of my newly applied Dbrands skin, sorry for poor photo skills, and I'm not the best at these skins, only my second one I've ever applied to a phone before; White matte skin with colored X logo







Tempered protector;
 
Zorachus said:
Pics of my newly applied Dbrands skin, sorry for poor photo skills, and I'm not the best at these skins, only my second one I've ever applied to a phone before; White matte skin with colored X logo
Click to expand...

How rich!!!! :D
 
The thing about the N6P is that it's great for idle and low-powered activities because it has a large battery. But the SD810 really lets you down when you try to do anything serious. Literally halves the battery life when I try playing games (i.e., <5 hours SoT).

Here's the best I got in the past with my N6P. Web browsing, texting, ebook reading and some music. Was reading texty web pages (probably TV Tropes, can't remember). Frankly, this was an anomaly because when I think about it, my SoT is more like 7 hours when web browsing normally. But it still happened.

Unlike gaming, normal tasks are efficient especially with a non-stock rom. I was using a Pure Nexus ROM and I don't disable things like location services nor was my screen below 33% (it was autobrightness, indoors). No Facebook app installed ;)

http://i.imgur.com/TYj7c4f.png
http://i.imgur.com/Ih0E2lK.png
 
Buying a new phone in a month or two. I think I may go the N6P route. Thanks for the info
 
ChronoReverse said:
The thing about the N6P is that it's great for idle and low-powered activities because it has a large battery. But the SD810 really lets you down when you try to do anything serious. Literally halves the battery life when I try playing games (i.e., <5 hours SoT).

Here's the best I got in the past with my N6P. Web browsing, texting, ebook reading and some music. Was reading texty web pages (probably TV Tropes, can't remember). Frankly, this was an anomaly because when I think about it, my SoT is more like 7 hours when web browsing normally. But it still happened.

Unlike gaming, normal tasks are efficient especially with a non-stock rom. I was using a Pure Nexus ROM and I don't disable things like location services nor was my screen below 33% (it was autobrightness, indoors). No Facebook app installed ;)

http://i.imgur.com/TYj7c4f.png
http://i.imgur.com/Ih0E2lK.png
Click to expand...

Wow, that's crazy. I have yet to come close to killing my 6P (on the same ROM and latest Franco Kernel) in a day since I leave it plugged in at work and while commuting in the car anywhere. Are you on the stock PN kernel as well? But like I said before, the batter definitely seems better than the stock ROM so far. Even with a lot of the gaming I do, it seems it will get at least 4 hours SoT still since I've consistently see it at around 50% with over 2 hours SoT. That's usually with around an hour of Clash of Clans time, and like I said before, that game murders the battery like no other (I think because of its constant network polling in addition to GPU usage).

I really wish there was an easy way to downscale games to 1080p or something though so I can see smoother performance. I can constantly see the 810 throttling back after just a few mins of playing and the framerate takes a very noticeable hit. I saw someone else here mention raising the throttling temp helped a lot as well, but I think for efficiency's sake, lowering the res would be more beneficial. I've actually noticed worse performance on the 6P than on my old M8 just because of the much higher res the 6P has to play at. I thought I saw a Qualcomm app a while back that can downscale games like Samsung's gaming app, but I don't see anything like that now and only see semi-permanent root hacks to change the whole OS/UI to 1080p, which I don't want to do. I just want to downscale games.

It seems Android game devs might want to start adding more PC-like graphical options into their games now, hah.
 
T4rd said:
Wow, that's crazy. I have yet to come close to killing my 6P (on the same ROM and latest Franco Kernel) in a day since I leave it plugged in at work and while commuting in the car anywhere. Are you on the stock PN kernel as well?
Click to expand...
I was using Kylo kernel back then. But the key isn't really the kernel, it was simply the content I was reading. Wifi and text heavy web pages where I only scroll per page.


I can constantly see the 810 throttling back after just a few mins of playing and the framerate takes a very noticeable hit.
Click to expand...
Yup, the SD810 cannot function at even half speed without soon throttling. But it still burns battery life like crazy so games don't get much over 4 hour SoT on the N6P.


I've actually noticed worse performance on the 6P than on my old M8 just because of the much higher res the 6P has to play at
Click to expand...
The N6P actually can run faster than the M8 even on the high resolution. The problem is that you need to play in a freezer since it can only do that for 30 seconds. Terrible terrible SoC.
 
BTW, if you're feeling a bit adventurous and you have root, before I sold my N6P I had been working on something that helps smooth out performance from thermal limitations.

Dropbox - thermal-engine.conf

Backup and then replace the thermal-engine.conf file in your /system/etc folder and then reboot. It tweaks the CPU throttling and core shutdown as well as the GPU throttling. Sustained performance is generally better so it may be useful for games. I've tuned it for the game I played though but it shouldn't be any worse than stock in any circumstance.

There's no danger from using this since there's still upper limits that are set AND there's a hardware failsafe.
 
  • Like
Reactions: T4rd
like this
I have a Note 3 and that thing used to be buttery smooth when it had Jellybean. With the recent lollipop update the device stutters like no other. Browsing Google Play stutters every now and then. I have an LG Vista, which is lower spec'd than the Note 3 and it's way smoother. Samsung no longer intends to update the Note 3 and clearly they have introduced a malicious software bug with the last update to force people to upgrade to the Note 5.
 
ChronoReverse said:
BTW, if you're feeling a bit adventurous and you have root, before I sold my N6P I had been working on something that helps smooth out performance from thermal limitations.

Dropbox - thermal-engine.conf

Backup and then replace the thermal-engine.conf file in your /system/etc folder and then reboot. It tweaks the CPU throttling and core shutdown as well as the GPU throttling. Sustained performance is generally better so it may be useful for games. I've tuned it for the game I played though but it shouldn't be any worse than stock in any circumstance.

There's no danger from using this since there's still upper limits that are set AND there's a hardware failsafe.
Click to expand...

Pretty nifty. Definitely notice better performance in Clash after a few mins of playing. Thanks for this.

Did you set all of the values yourself or did you pull some of them from somewhere else too? I just glanced at it in a text viewer and dunno wtf is being modified over stock or even what to look at to raise the throttle temp, heh.
 
I set almost all the values myself. But it's already a bit past the limit of what can be sustained so I suspect even adjusted settings won't sustain at a higher speed than this.
 
Tried a new ROM, old fav developer = Chroma, just installed it yesterday, with Franko kernel. Also have have two really kick ass Layers on this that are perfect IMO;

Dark Stock Theme - Layers
Dark Stock Theme - Layers - Android Apps on Google Play

Navigate - Layers Theme
Navigate - Layers Theme - Android Apps on Google Play

Dark Layers is what I really wanted, just the stock AOSP style, but inverted, and still keeping the nice colorful material design intact. And Navigate allows some really cool nav bar keys, some really different stuff.

Menu screen;


Home screen;


Lock screen;
 
Last edited:
This is one of the phones i like more. I have a Zuk z1 as my day phone, but this one is really a beast. Congratulations
 
Having this phone a couple weeks now, tweaked and set up to my liking, with pure black Layers theme, which looks AMAZING on AMOLED displays. And Chroma ROM + Franco kernel giving me butter smooth performance and around 6h Screen On time.

Really loving this phone. Pure stock Android OS tweaked by the extra features from a good ROM is just the best IMO.

Only minor complaints might be the size of the phone is a tad tall, and a bit large. But that's about it.

I think a 5.5" sized Nexus with minimal bezels and current flagship specs could be the best phone ever

Even this 6P running N beta 4 was shockingly smooth, for a year old phone with only 3GB RAM the 6P runs the N beta so well. Seems like N got rid of all the lag period, no hiccups whatsoever with very smooth transitions, and it's still a beta, running on last year's hardware.
 
Last edited:
This weekend, I took my phone off the charger Saturday around 10AM. I didn't put it back on the charger until today at 4AM. That's almost 2 days off the charger, with regular usage, and I got 4 hours SOT. I wasn't even trying to save battery. Pretty impressive in my book. With my Note 3 and 4, I for sure would have been putting it on the charger at sundown.
 
I flashed the PureNexus ROM partially because I read that Android Pay works on it. It's not a big deal, as I pretty much only use it at the vending machines at my school once a week, but it doesn't work on this ROM if you just install it normally like any other ROM. Seems you have to implement some "systemless root" workaround that looks pretty annoying to do after skimming the PN XDA thread. Oh well, I'll live without it for now.

The new Nexus leaks are kinda disappointing to me; dropping front facing speakers. Looks like I'll be keeping my 6P for a while still, which is cool with me, I'm completely happy with it and imagine I'll continue to be for it's life time.
 
T4rd said:
I flashed the PureNexus ROM partially because I read that Android Pay works on it. It's not a big deal, as I pretty much only use it at the vending machines at my school once a week, but it doesn't work on this ROM if you just install it normally like any other ROM. Seems you have to implement some "systemless root" workaround that looks pretty annoying to do after skimming the PN XDA thread. Oh well, I'll live without it for now.
Click to expand...

I did it. It's really, really not difficult at all. Takes less than 5 minutes (when you are first installing the ROM, that is). Here's my post.

Android Pay with Root - Post #199

I now use Android Pay like a boss. Used it at Staples, Best Buy, Sports Authority, and a few other places.
 
jyi786 said:
I did it. It's really, really not difficult at all. Takes less than 5 minutes (when you are first installing the ROM, that is). Here's my post.

Android Pay with Root - Post #199

I now use Android Pay like a boss. Used it at Staples, Best Buy, Sports Authority, and a few other places.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured I'd have to wipe and reinstall my ROM to do it though, will I not? Can I just start at step 3 there since I've already installed the ROM and latest gapps?

Today is the first day I've killed my phone in one day, here's my stats:


7U6wlJxl.png



du4dUwYl.png


That's with some light gaming and a lot of youtube. I was away on LTE for a couple hours as well and used my phone for a grocery list. I'm good with that.
 
Last edited:
T4rd said:
Yeah, I figured I'd have to wipe and reinstall my ROM to do it though, will I not? Can I just start at step 3 there since I've already installed the ROM and latest gapps?

Today is the first day I've killed my phone in one day, here's my stats:
That's with some light gaming and a lot of youtube. I'm good with that.
Click to expand...

Holy massive picture Batman!

Nice battery life though.
 
Vermillion said:
Holy massive picture Batman!

Nice battery life though.
Click to expand...

haha, yeah with the pix!

But true, that's really good battery life.

T4rd said:
Yeah, I figured I'd have to wipe and reinstall my ROM to do it though, will I not? Can I just start at step 3 there since I've already installed the ROM and latest gapps?

Today is the first day I've killed my phone in one day, here's my stats:


That's with some light gaming and a lot of youtube. I'm good with that.
Click to expand...

You can certainly try it with the ROM already installed. Just make sure you do a full TWRP backup/nandroid, and save your data to your computer or something before you try.
 
Hah, sorry, the Imgur app sucks for linking to pics since it doesn't give me the option of selecting different sizes like the desktop site does. I just posted that with the last 3% of battery I had last night and then it died and I fell asleep, heh. I just resized them for you.

Thanks again, I guess I'll try it out then.
 
I was expecting a deal on Jul 4 for this phone, but got nothing. This all wait is gonna kill me but I must wait now.
 
I've been itching to upgrade to this phone from my, now ancient, Note 3, but with the inevitable price drop coming after the N announcement, I just can't bring myself to pay full price this late in the game.
 
Astral Abyss said:
I've been itching to upgrade to this phone from my, now ancient, Note 3, but with the inevitable price drop coming after the N announcement, I just can't bring myself to pay full price this late in the game.
Click to expand...

Amazon Prime Day Sale had the 128GB Nexus 6p for $478. Could not resist $172 off the regular price so I bought a silver one.

EDIT: Late night math fail
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top